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Summer Help Closer to Home

June 17, 2009 - OLD ORCHARD BEACH — Most summers, about a third of the staff at the Beau Rivage Motel comes from abroad.

The seasonal nature of the jobs can make it difficult for the motel to hire locals, who tend to want year-round employment.

But this year, the owner, Jo-Ann Lapointe, expects she'll have only five international workers, rather than the usual eight.

"We have had more applicants – good, qualified applicants locally that have been able to meet our work dates," she said.

Maine's tourism industry appears to be relying less on foreign workers this year because the recession has left more Americans looking for work.

The state's unemployment rate was 7.9 percent in April, the latest month for which figures are available. It was just 5 percent in April 2008.

"Most of my members have been able to fill their needs with local help this year, with people looking for work," said Vaughn Stinson, chief executive officer of the Maine Tourism Association.

At the Beau Rivage, foreign students on J1 visas – the type that allows three months of work and one month of travel – typically do housekeeping and sometimes a little light maintenance.

This year, Lapointe said, it will be a local worker who takes care of the maintenance.

Alix Vandal, an accounting student from Quebec, and Gergana Nikolova, a medical student from Bulgaria, have already arrived for the summer season, which won't be in full swing until the end of June.

Vandal, 20, has vacationed in Old Orchard Beach with her family since she was a child. She hopes that by the end of this summer, she will be fully bilingual, a must for her field around French-speaking Montreal. She's also planning a summer's worth of morning jogs on the beach.

Nikolova, 20, looks forward to experiencing another culture – and visiting Niagara Falls.

"I want to meet different people," said Nikolova, who arrived last week and is still a bit shy about her English.

It's not possible to know exactly how many foreign workers will be working in Maine this tourism season. The U.S. State Department does not have figures for the J1 program, which it administers, broken down to the state level.

The number of slots requested by Maine employers for another visa program, the H2B, is up. This year, 2,021 slots were requested, compared with 1,632 last year, according to the state Department of Labor.

But those numbers do not indicate how many visas were granted or used, and the figures on the actual number of workers will not be available for months.

The need to apply for H2B visas well before the season begins – generally starting in December – might explain why requests are up, said Robert Laltoo, president of IWS, an international placement agency with offices in Maine and Florida.

"People thought it will be business as usual," he said.

Demand for foreign workers was lower in jobs across the board, particularly for wait staff, he said.

Palace Playland has seen more domestic workers applying for jobs, but not many more. Freddy Golder, the business manager, said the number of foreign workers – the business relies on students – is remaining steady at about 75 this year, out of a staff of 125 to 150.

"We wouldn't be able to operate this park without the foreign exchange students," he said.

Mike Miller, 21, would normally be working in construction these days. Instead, he's employed at Rick's Fried Clams outside Palace Playland.

"The economy kind of sent (construction) to the wayside," said Miller.

His co-worker Wednesday was Kerian Allen, a 24-year-old Jamaican student who's spending her second summer in Maine.

"The first time, I didn't even know there was a state called Maine. I just wanted the experience," she said. "It was good, so I came back."

The money she earns for school and the friends she makes from around the world help make up for the homesickness, she said.

By ANN S. KIM, Staff Writer, Portland Press Herald, June 11, 2009


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